Kir Royale Cocktail

I often have a small event for neighbors in my home for New Year’s Eve. It’s becoming a tradition, if you count three years in a row. Since most of my neighbors have young kids—and since we’re all smart enough to know that traveling on this night is more dangerous—we stick close to home and none of us are all that interested in staying up 'til midnight anymore. I call it a French New Year’s Eve: We celebrate the New Year at 4pm, which is midnight in France. The kids are welcome to come and I have some tidbits to eat and most definitely a cocktail to share. This year I’m offering up a choice of bubbly libations; all of them with a liqueur and Champagne (or, rather, on my budget, more like Prosecco!).

For this year’s celebration I’ll have bottles of homemade Cranberry Liqueur, Limoncello and Raspberry Liqueur. I’ll also have some Crème de Cassis available. Crème de Cassis is a sweet, dark red liqueur made from blackcurrants. Because currants aren’t something that I’ve found readily available at the market I’ve not made my own (yet) but I love a Kir Royale so a good brand from France will be available, too; it’s only fitting for a French New Year’s Eve, right?

These cocktails are so simple: a bit of liqueur topped with some chilled bubbly. Just enough sweetness and taste to make sparkling wine a special cocktail.

Cheers to all of you too…now on with the celebrating!

Kir Royale Cocktail (serves 2)

Ingredients

8 oz. Champagne Brut (or Prosecco), chilled

1 oz. Crème de Cassis

Instructions

Pour the Crème de Cassis into a champagne glass

Slowly pour in the Champagne. You may want to adjust the ratio of Cassis to Champagne to suit your tastes. Enjoy!